Escorted small group tours 2010 / 2011
Join other like-minded travellers (maximum 16 people) on one of our fixed-departure soft adventure tours escorted by one of our experienced tour leaders. Each tour is based on a local festival then branches off for sightseeing in other areas of PNG. All escorted tours are complete packages including internal air travel, accommodation, tours and some meals. Individuals, couples and small groups may sign up on these tours. Similar programs for private groups (6-16 pax) booked by travel agents or tour organisers can be found here.

MAY 2010 - EM208 GOROKA COFFEE FESTIVAL TOUR (25 MAY-07 JUNE)
13 nights Lae, Goroka, Mt Hagen, Simbai, Madang
The Goroka Coffee Festival is primarily an agricultural show which aims to promote the coffee industry in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Coffee growers display their produce – freshly picked red coffee cherries, dried black coffee beans, ground and packaged coffee – and provide an opportunity to taste the finished product. Buyers and representatives of coffee outlets like Starbucks attend the Show to form relationships with local grower cooperatives in order to assure their supplies of organic coffee from community-owned sources. Various environmental organisations mount sustainable agriculture displays and equipment dealers hawk their machines. Other agricultural produce from the Highlands is also shown – cocoa, fruit jams, market vegetables, honey – and various non-agricultural cottage industries (weaving, cooking) mount displays of their activities. It’s a big day out for the locals in Goroka and surrounding provinces and an excellent opportunity for visitors to rub shoulders with ordinary Papua New Guineans from many walks of life. But the main attraction for many visitors at the Goroka Coffee festival is the sing-sing competition, which for Goroka is the second biggest cultural performance of the year, only slightly smaller than the Goroka Show sing-sing in September. The Goroka Coffee Festival sing-sing will feature a large variety of cultural groups from all over the Highlands and some coastal areas including Lae, Madang and the Sepik. This escorted tour combines the earthy coffee festival with the natural and cultural highlights of Lae, Mt Hagen, exotic Simbai and beautiful Madang.

Tufi Culture Festival

JUNE 2010 - EM206 TUFI CULTURE FESTIVAL & PAPUAN GULF MASK FESTIVAL TOUR (11-24 JUNE)
13 nights Port Moresby - Tufi - Kerema - Mt Hagen - Simbai - Madang
This is an off-the-beaten-track tour for culture-philes, an opportunity to meet three contrasting tribal peoples of Papua New Guinea that the rest of the world has forgotten … or perhaps never discovered in the first place.
Two of these locations – Kerema and Simbai – rarely receive visits from tourists or outsiders and this provides a unique opportunity to study traditional lifestyles that have not been modified for tourist consumption.

Baining Fire Dance - National Mask Festival

JULY 2010 - EM204 NATIONAL MASK FESTIVAL TOUR (13-25 JULY)
13 nights Port Moresby - Rabaul (National Mask Festival) - Kavieng (Malagan Culture Show), Tabar Islands
Hosted by the National Cultural Commission, the National Mask Festival showcases traditional dance masks, spirit masks and decorative masks from all over PNG. A must-see for cultural art lovers. Includes performance of the spectacular Baining fire dance. The tour then moves on to Kavieng for the Malagan Culture Festival and a boat trip to the remote Tabar Islands, home of the Malagan mask culture.

EM204A NATIONAL MASK FESTIVAL WEEKENDER (13-17 JUL)
4 nights Mask festival only. Semi-escorted package for independent travellers.

Mt Hagen Show performers

AUGUST 2010 - EM201 MT HAGEN SHOW TOUR (6-19 AUG)
13 nights Wewak Islands, Sepik Crocodile Festival, Mt Hagen Show, Simbai, Madang
The Mt Hagen Show is the largest singsing festival in PNG and provides an ideal opportunity for visitors to see a kaleidoscope of PNG cultures in one location. The Sepik Crocodile Festival is a conservation awareness event backed by WWF designed for local villagers not tourists. Unique soft adventure sightseeing tour with tour leader, all ground arrangements and internal flights included.

EM201A MT HAGEN SHOW WEEKENDER (12-16 AUG)
4 nights Mt Hagen Show only. Semi-escorted package for independent travellers.

Goroka Show - skeleton dance

SEPTEMBER 2010 - EM207 GOROKA SHOW AND KALAM CULTURE FESTIVAL TOUR (14-27 SEP)
13 nights Goroka Show, Madang, Simbai (Kalam Culture Festival)
PNG's second-largest Show takes place in the pleasant highlands town of Goroka. Many of the same cultural groups from the Mt Hagen Show will perform here. The tour also flies into remote Simbai for the annual culture festival of the Kalam tribe. At Simbai you will witness the initiation of boys into tribal manhood by killing their first pig, having their noses pierced for wearing nose ornaments, and wearing the men's green beetle head-dress for the first time. Feasting and dancing is all part of this week-long festival rarely visited by tourists.
2010 dates and tour details coming soon

EM207A GOROKA SHOW WEEKENDER (16-20 SEP)
4 nights Goroka Show only. Semi-escorted package for independent travellers.

Trobriand Islands ladies celebrating yam harvest

SEPTEMBER 2010 - EM202 TROBRIAND ISLANDS YAM HARVEST FESTIVAL TOUR
7 nights (Tour leader: Jane Toleitau)
The government-backed Milamala Festival held (spasmodically) at Losuia on Kiriwina Island has become commercialised, unreliable and no longer coincides with the actual yam harvest. By arrangement with the people of an island village we offer this very special opportunity to spend a week in the Trobriand Islands learning about the Trobriand Islands yam cultivation cycle and its relationship with their social calendar. We will observe the actual digging of yams, carriage to the village for storage in yam houses, and competition between clans for status by displaying the most bountiful harvest and offering the biggest yams to the village chief. All accompanied by much singing, dancing, tug-of-war and hilarious Trobriand-style cricket. The festivities culminate with the harvest feast on Saturday (fresh fish, lobster, pork, chicken and of course yam prepared in 10 different ways!). Tour includes two days exploring Kiriwina and an audience with the paramount chief. 2010 dates and tour details coming soon

Faces in the crowd at the Morobe Show

Huli wigmen at the Morobe Show

OCTOBER 2010 - EM205 MOROBE SHOW (12-25 OCT)
13 nights Madang, Wewak, Kairiru Island, Middle Sepik, Simbai, Mt Hagen, Goroka, Lae (Morobe Show)
The Morobe Show is one of Papua New Guinea’s major annual festivals. The weekend event begins with a full day of agricultural and trade displays and awarding of prizes to the growers of the biggest and best of everything – from coffee to cattle to cut flowers. This is a marvellous opportunity to view a cross section of rural commerce in contemporary Papua New Guinea and rub shoulders with the locals who flood into town to show their wares and to see what everybody else is making, growing and selling. The second day of the show, known as the Morobe Sing-sing, features traditional dancing performances by over 60 sing-sing groups from all over Papua New Guinea. This line-up is second only to the Mt Hagen Show in size and variety, attracting cultural groups from as far away as Bougainville and the Trobriand Islands to compete for prizes.
This 13 night sign-up escorted tour also includes some of our signature remote area destinations such as the mystical Middle Sepik, exotic Simbai and the scenic Highlands Highway journey from Mt Hagen to Goroka.

EM205A 2010 MOROBE SHOW WEEKENDER (22-25 OCT)
A 3 night package suitable for both independent travellers and short-stay tour groups. 1 night Goroka, 2 nights Lae.

NOVEMBER 2010 - TRADITIONAL POTTERY TOUR
13 nights Port Moresby - Tufi - Lae - Madang - Sepik River

2010 dates and tour details coming soon

DECEMBER 2010 - NATIVE FLORA TOUR
13 nights Port Moresby - Lae - Madang - Simbai - Mt Hagen - Kikori

2010 dates and tour details coming soon

DECEMBER 2010 - CHRISTMAS IN PNG AND SOLOMON ISLANDS TOUR
13 nights Goroka - Madang - Simbai - Honiara - Gizo
2010 dates and tour details coming soon

Bomana War Cemetery

APRIL 2011 - EM203 ANZAC DAY PILGRIMAGE TOUR (16-29 APRIL)
13 nights Port Moresby, Popondetta, Buna/Gona, Kokoda, Owers Corner, Alotau/Milne Bay, Bomana War Cemetery (ANZAC Day), Rabaul, Lae, Salamaua
Attending the Anzac Day dawn service at Bomana War Cemetery outside Port Moresby held every 25th April is an emotionally moving experience for Australians. There before you, as you recite the Ode and sing Abide With Me in the semi-darkness, lie the graves of 3800 men (and women) who died for their country - Australia, Britain, Papua New Guinea - in wartime. This tour provides an opportunity to learn about the Bomana War Cemetery and its role in Australia’s history, and explore some of the locations where the New Guinea Campaign unfolded and those now buried at Bomana gave their lives. Lest we forget.
(8 nights truncated tour option also available).